Scientists think that growing garden grass could be the secret to solving our energy needs, and we may soon be able to replace our gasoline with “grassoline”.
The team, including experts from Cardiff University in Wales, has shown that hydrogen can be taken from grass in useful amounts with the help of sunlight and a cheap catalyst (催化剂) — something that speeds up a chemical reaction without being used up.
It is the first time that this has been shown and it could lead to a sustainable (可持续的) way of making hydrogen, reported Asian News International. This could be an important kind of renewable energy because it is high in energy and it does not give out harmful gases when it is burned.
Study co-author Michael Bowker said, “This is really a green source of energy. Hydrogen is seen as an important future energy carrier as the world moves from fossil fuels to renewable energy, and our research has shown that even garden grass could be a good way of getting it.”
Cellulose (纤维素), which is a key part of plants and the biopolymer (生物聚合物) found in the largest numbers on the earth, could be a great source of hydrogen.
In its study, the team looked at the possibility of getting hydrogen from cellulose using sunlight and a simple catalyst.
This is called photocatalysis (光催化作用) and in it, the sunlight starts the catalyst, which then makes cellulose and water into hydrogen. The researchers studied the effectiveness of three metal-based catalysts, of which nickel (镍) especially interested the researchers, as it is a much more common metal than gold and palladium (钯) and it saves more money.
According to Bowker, producing hydrogen from cellulose using photocatalysis has not been studied in detail. The team’s research shows that large amounts of hydrogen can be produced using this method with the help of a bit of sunlight and a cheap catalyst.
The study shows that it is effective to use real grass taken from a garden. “This is important as it avoids the need to separate and clean up cellulose, which can be both difficult and costly,” said Bowker.
1.What are needed to get hydrogen from grass?
A.A catalyst and palladium. B.Water and cellulose.
C.Sunlight and a biopolymer. D.Sunlight and a catalyst.
2.Why is the new way of making hydrogen considered significant?
A.It is cheap, green and sustainable.
B.It is the best to produce the renewable energy.
C.It is more productive and efficient than other methods.
D.It can replace the way to make fossil fuels completely.
3.Why does nickel interest the researchers in making hydrogen from cellulose?
A.It can produce the largest amount of hydrogen.
B.It can avoid separating and cleaning up cellulose.
C.It is more common than other metals and costs less.
D.It works quicker than other metals during photocatalysis.
4.What does the author intend to tell us mainly in this passage?
A.Catalysts that could be taken from grass.
B.A new way of making hydrogen from cellulose.
C.The potential of hydrogen as a renewable energy.
D.The connection between hydrogen and photocatalysis.
You know you have to read “between the lines” to get the most out of anything. I want to persuade you to do something equally important in the course of your reading. I want to persuade you to “write between the lines”. Unless you do, you are not likely to do the most efficient kind of reading.
I insist, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of damage but of love. There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of buying is only the first step to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. A comparison may make the point clear. You buy a piece of beef and transfer it from the butcher's icebox to your own. But you do not own the beef in the most important sense until you eat it and get it into your blood. I am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your blood to do you any good.
There are three kinds of book owners. The first has all the standard sets and bestsellers — unread, untouched. The second has a great many books — a few of them read through, most of them dipped into, but all of them as clean and shiny as the day they were bought. The third has a few books or many — every one of them worn, shaken and loosened by continual use, marked and scribbled (涂写) in from front to back.
Why is marking up a book necessary to reading it? First, it keeps you awake.(And I don’t mean only conscious; I mean wide awake. ) In the second place, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. The marked book is usually the thoughtthrough book. Finally, writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed.
1.The third kind of owners of books must be ______.
A.experienced readers B.untidy readers
C.active readers D.careless readers
2.Marking up a book means ______.
A.writing down difficult sentences
B.finding the extra meanings of unknown words
C.writing in the space the ideas you get through careful reading
D.making notes to show you understand what you have read
3.What does the author persuade you to mark?
A.Whatever you have given deep thought to while reading.
B.Words and sentences that bring up rich ideas.
C.Primary questions that challenge you.
D.Whatever disagreements you may have with the book
4.A great advantage of marking up a book is ______.
A.to absorb all the brilliant ideas it contains
B.to make yourself a part of it
C.to make yourself conscious that you are reading actively
D.to enable yourself to pick up the book for continual reading
Some English words are made up of the same part and have different beginnings and different endings, such as import, export, report and transport. All these words, you can see, have the same “port”, which come from the Latin word, meaning “to carry” or “to move” from one place to another. And according to the bit at the beginning, which we call the prefix the meaning changes. “Import” means “to carry in” or “to bring into a country”, “export”, “ex” means “out of”, so this word means “to carry out of the country”, “re” means “back”, so the “report” means “to tell somebody, to bring back information to somebody”, “transport”, “trans” means “across” and it means “to carry across one place to another”.
Let’s look at the following words: supporter, reporter, importer and exporter. You can see that in this case these words are nouns which are made up of the verbs plus a suffix, thus meaning a person who completes the verb. So supporter means somebody who supports. A reporter is somebody who reports. Importer is somebody who imports and exporter is somebody who exports, and so on.
1.In the first sentence the word “part” means _______.
A.different beginnings and different endings
B.the same part that has several meanings
C.the root of the word
D.the same root that has different meanings
2.By adding a prefix or a suffix to a root, we can get a word which has _______.
A.the meaning of a Latin word B.a different meaning
C.the meaning of “in” or “out of” D.a lot of meanings
3.We can get a noun _______.
A.just by adding “er” to verbs B.by changing a prefix
C.only by adding “er” to a root D.by adding a suffix to a verb
4.According to the passage, if we talk about a man of refinement, you may guess that he must be _______.
A.a man having good manners and education
B.a person who should be educated
C.somebody having bad manners
D.a person punished by somebody else
Four Free Mobile Apps to Help You Learn English Faster
Have you realized that you can put your smartphone to really good use for learning English? Here are 4 free mobile apps that will help you do just that.
Hello English
It covers all the aspects of language learning, including vocabulary, translation, grammar, spellings, spoken and reading skills. It uses interactive games to teach different English lessons and offers new audiobooks, latest news, and books. However, you should already understand basic English structures and alphabets, for the app can’t help you learn English from scratch(从零开始).
Duolingo
If you want to learn English from scratch, then this is the app you are looking for. Duolingo uses interactive games to help you learn English. For beginners, the app focuses on helping you learn verbs, phrases and sentences.
Lingbe
If you are ready to practice your spoken skills in the real-world, you’ll need Lingbe. It’s a community-based app where people help each other and share their native languages. It connects you with real people on call who are native English speakers.
HelloTalk
HelloTalk is similar to Lingbe as it connects you with native speakers to help improve your language skills. However, it adds a few extra functions that might interest you. You can view the information about users to find a match that interests you. Additionally, you can also send text and audio messages, and even do video calls with other people.
If you are a beginner, start from Duolingo and then use Hello English to take full command over the language. For fluent spoken English learners, you can try out Lingbe or HelloTalk.
1.What should you already understand to use Hello English?
A.Good reading and writing skills.
B.Basic listening and speaking tips.
C.Different English lessons and books.
D.English letters and basic structures.
2.Which app is the best choice for an English beginner at first?
A.Hello English.
B.Duolingo.
C.Lingbe.
D.HelloTalk.
3.What can you do on Lingbe?
A.Read the latest news.
B.Enjoy the interactive games.
C.Practice your spoken English.
D.Talk with native speakers in the flesh.
假定你是李华，你所在的学校要征集一封英文感谢信，以致敬奋战在抗击新型冠状病毒肺炎第一线的医护人员，请你根据下列要点写一封信用于投稿。
1. 表达谢意；
2. 个人感受；
3. 表达信心。注意:
1. 词数 100 左右；
2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3. 开头语和结束语已为你写好。参考词汇:流行病 epidemic
疫情 epidemic situation
新型冠状病毒 COVID-19
Dear medical workers,
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A lot of people now____these theories relating acupuncture to the production of chemicals to reduce pain.
A.get down to B.come to C.subscribe to D.look forward to
